Market monitor

A new service offering people an ‘online solicitor’ to provide unlimited initial legal advice for £14 a month – backed by leading investor and former Channel 4 chairman Luke Johnson – has recently gone live, Legal Futures can reveal.

A firm in Plymouth has become the first criminal law practice to become an alternative business structure as the pace of new licences from the Solicitors Regulation Authority continues to step up.

Gloucestershire high street firm Langley Wellington yesterday became the latest alternative business structure (ABS). Meanwhile, Berlad Graham has become the latest ‘virtual’ law firm to apply to become an ABS.

In-house lawyers want to encourage non-lawyers within their businesses to take a more ‘self-serve’ approach to creating and managing low-risk and low-value contracts as a way to drive efficiency, new research has found.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority should develop a fast track for legal disciplinary practices seeking approval to operate as alternative business structures, according to the largest of three firms granted their ABS licences yesterday.

One of the country’s best-known personal injury lawyers has formed the latest alternative business structure as he prepares for the introduction of the Jackson reforms. Initially the move is to bring an accountant into partnership.

The strength of the Eddie Stobart brand means that hundreds of people a week are already seeking advice from its new barrister service, the company’s group legal director has told this website.

Rocket Lawyer, the Google-Ventures backed online legal document service, has today launched its On Call programme into the UK, the first step towards the much-anticipated website going live to the public at the end of the year, Legal Futures can report.

What is possibly the first ever automated brief to counsel has been claimed by unique online legal service Road Traffic Representation. Claire Burtwistle, a barrister at Old Bailey Chambers in London, was briefed by the client through the site.

A corporate/commercial solicitor has launched the latest alternative business structure with a view to forming partnerships with other professionals. Joanne Bligh has set up Thinking Legal in Birmingham.

rtesian Law, the groundbreaking SRA-regulated law firm set up by six junior criminal law barristers, has named Bryan Cox QC as its first associate member. Mr Cox is a tenant of New Park Court Chambers in Leeds.

A groundbreaking new law firm that handles personal injury claims for other practices on a white-label basis has launched in the north-east of England. Questus says it is the first dedicated outsourcing law firm of its type.

Instant Law – the legal video-conferencing business that currently offers its service through major libraries in London and Birmingham – is to move into the not-for-profit sector next month by partnering with Greenwich Citizens Advice Bureau in London.

Red Bar Law has become the first start-up alternative business structure, offering clients early access to barristers and costs savings of at least 30%. It is the brainchild of a solicitor and business consultant.

Alternative business structures and tax liabilities mean that over 2,000 law firms are at risk of failure in the next 12 months, according to the Association of Business Recovery Professionals, better known as R3.